Having fought a losing battle against music piracy when it was merely in its beta form, metal gods Metallica are once again on the front lines of the issue, this time confessing that the diminishing income generated by an ever-changing music industry has taken the routine two-year break off the table for the band.

Guitarist Kirk Hammett opened up in a recent interview with Rolling Stone that: “The cycles of taking two years off don’t exist anymore. We were able to do that because we had record royalties coming in consistently”. The band with albums such as the groundbreaking …And Justice for All, the spectacular Black album, and the so-so Death Magnetic are starting to feel the burn. “Now you put out an album, and you have a windfall maybe once or twice, but not the way it used to be – a cheque every three months”. explains Hammett.

Metallica recently performed their 1991 Black album in its entirety at Werchter Festival in Belgium – an experience you had to see to believe.

It’s hard to imagine that the Great Financial Crisis has managed to infiltrate their security gates, high walls, impressive mansions and caked-on makeup. Though, maybe now that the rock stars have felt the all-too-human pain of having to work, they can go back to writing real metal…well, once Lars gets the acting bug out of his system after featuring on the made-for-TV film Hemingway & Gelhorn.